Decision

Decision for South Birmingham Skip Hire Ltd

Published 9 March 2021

0.1 WEST MIDLANDS TRAFFIC AREA

1. DECISION OF THE TRAFFIC COMMISSIONER

2. PUBLIC INQUIRY HELD ON 12 FEBRUARY 2021

2.1 APPLICANT: SOUTH BIRMINGHAM SKIP HIRE LTD

3. Background

3.1 Previous licences held by similarly named companies

In September 2019 the restricted operator Birmingham South Skips Ltd (licence OD2013577) entered liquidation. Its licence was revoked in November 2019. Meanwhile, a company named Birmingham Skips Ltd was granted a restricted licence (OD2024804) in August 2019. To the question on the application form asking whether the applicant had acquired within the past 12 months any assets of a company which held an operator’s licence the applicant answered “no”.

Birmingham Skips Ltd and its sole director Christopher O’Donnell subsequently attended a public inquiry on 19 June 2020 after the company had been found to lack sufficient finances. At the inquiry it became clear that the company had acquired the assets of Birmingham South Skips Ltd despite its statement to the contrary and, further, was almost wholly non-compliant with maintenance and drivers’ hours requirements: I therefore revoked its licence and disqualified both the company and Mr O’Donnell from holding a licence for 18 months.

3.2 Application from South Birmingham Skip Hire Ltd

In August 2020 the central licensing office in Leeds received an application for a restricted licence from South Birmingham Skip Hire Ltd. The sole director of the company was Shane Baker, whose name had been mentioned at the June public inquiry as a driver for Birmingham Skips Ltd. The proposed operating centre was at Park Farm B32 4BH, which had also been the operating centre for Birmingham Skips Ltd.

I was concerned that the application could be an attempt by Mr O’Donnell and/or Birmingham Skips Ltd to circumvent the disqualification order I had made, so I decided to consider the application at a public inquiry. This was held on MS Teams on 12 February 2021.

4. Public inquiry

At the inquiry, Shane Baker stated that he had no link with Christopher O’Donnell or Birmingham Skips Ltd, other than the fact that he had been employed as a driver by that company for a few months. Since the demise of that operation he had spotted a business opportunity.

I asked why the bank statement for January 2021 (provided for the inquiry as evidence of finances) showed frequent large payments for fuel and numerous payments from various bodies or individuals with the reference “skip”. Mr Baker stated that he had been providing waste removal services by means of builders’ bags and a van. He could not immediately recall the registration number of the van but undertook to let me have it after the inquiry. The payments to UK Fuels Ltd were for fuel both for the van and for friends’ vans which had also been used to help transport waste.

Mr Baker confirmed that his company would not be involved in processing waste at all: it would simply take away people’s rubbish in skips and take it to waste sites. I noted that such a transport only operation would in fact require a standard national licence, not the restricted one which had been applied for.

A few days after the inquiry Mr Baker supplied the registration number of his father’s van, a Renault Kangoo.

I still had considerable doubts whether Mr Baker was really using bags rather than delivering skips. It was then drawn to my attention that the company’s Facebook page contained several photographs of skips clearly marked “South Birmingham Skip Hire Ltd” placed on public roads and being carried by an HGV. My clerk contacted Mr Baker for his comments on this. Mr Baker explained that he had had three skips painted in the South Birmingham Skip Hire livery in anticipation of the application being granted and, when that was not forthcoming by the seven week target date, had contracted with a man with a lorry to deliver and recover the skips. This person subsequently disappeared and was not contactable.

Mr Baker added that he had changed the name of the company to Baker Waste Services Ltd on 1 March 2021 to try to distance himself from the tangle of similarly named companies (Birmingham South Skips Ltd, Birmingham Skips Ltd and South Birmingham Skip Hire Ltd). He provided evidence of the name change at Companies House.

5. Conclusions

There is considerable evidence in the bank statement provided to suggest that South Birmingham Skip Hire Ltd is already operating. There are large fuel payments going out and several payments coming in with the reference “skip”. The company’s Facebook page has photographs of a skip lorry carrying a skip in the livery of South Birmingham Skip Hire Ltd. There are appreciative comments from customers about the skip service they have received. I am unconvinced by the explanation that waste has been carried in builders’ bags in a van and that the skips were delivered by an unnamed person who has disappeared into the ether. I note that Mr Baker made no mention of these skips or this person at the public inquiry: it was only when he was asked about the Facebook entries that this explanation was forthcoming. I conclude that the balance of probability points heavily towards skip operations having already commenced in advance of the application being considered, and that the operation is a continuation of the business of the disqualified Birmingham Skips Ltd.

Because the applicant has been operating without authority, I find that it is not a fit person to hold an operator’s licence. I am therefore refusing the application under Section 13B of the 1995 Act. Even if it were fit, the nature of its intended operations render a standard national licence necessary, rather than the restricted one which the company has applied for.

Nicholas Denton

Traffic Commissioner

2 March 2021